In recent years, the advent of stereo display technologies enabling viewers to view objects in three-dimensions with two-dimensional displays has been gaining interest and acceptance. With typical stereo display technology, viewers are required to wear eye glasses that control the visual content delivered to each eye. However, it is typically the case that the relative orientations of the projections received by the viewer are correct only for certain viewing locations, such as locations where a viewer's view is orthogonal to the center of a display. By contrast, viewers watching the same display outside these viewing locations experience a re-projection error that manifests as a vertical misalignment of the visual content received by the eyes of the viewers. If the images are very different, then in some cases one image at a time may be seen, a phenomenon known as binocular rivalry. Another type of visual artifact in typical stereo display technologies is that foreground and background objects often appear with the same focus.
However, a typical three-dimensional display often yields distortions in images of three-dimensional structures when compared with the real scenes as a result of displaying three-dimensional images on a single two-dimensional surface. For example, focusing cues such as accommodation and blur in a retinal image specify the depth of the display rather than the depths objects in the images displayed. Moreover, typical three-dimensional displays produce three-dimensional images by uncoupling vengeance and accommodation, which often reduces a viewer's ability to effectively combine stereo image pairs and may cause viewer discomfort and fatigue. Thus, mere below threshold objectionableness may not be sufficient for permitting the presence of such artifacts.
Designers and manufacturers of three-dimensional display systems continue to seek systems and methods that reduce the adverse effects associated with typical stereo display technology.